Doing the job right

 When thinking about creating, designing and building a timber deck for your garden, there is more to think about before you start than you may think.

After many years of doing the work I have come across my share of disasters when it comes to decking, getting it wrong not only will cost you money but it can become a very dangerous structure.

One thing, if not the most important thing, is to make sure water can be drained off, so many have been built without any care about where and how the rain water is get off the deck, get this wrong and you will end with a green slippery deck that will not last very long.

Bit cooler

 This hot weather and then cooler weather plays havoc with timber, dries it out to quick, and then it starts to twist and bend if left alone, if you have planks of decking boards that are not fixed yet, its a good idea to stack them together and either strap tight or some heavy weight to help avoid too much movement, it wont stop it all together but will make the boards usuable. 

Hardwood is the worse in this type of heat, and the toughest to get straight if allowed to move too much.

Composite boards are not too bad but some movement will occur. 

heating weather

 Very hot today and the rest of this week and beyond, this type of weather can make your decking boards shrink in the width, so that gap you started with gets bigger.

The amount of gap is a choice you make, but its best when building the structure to leave around 1 to 2mm only, then if it shrinks the gap does not become too large.

Shrinkage normally only happens in the width of timber, the fence slate on a close boarded type fence can do the same.

Todays decking

 Decking today is still as popular albeit a bit more shillings to pay for it.  Composite though has not increased as much as timber, making it a possibility for most.

Run a poll to see how the difference has been,

Composite or timber, reply to let me know 

Update on timber in the garden

 Good day everyone. where do you get your timber from these days, the past few years have seen the price of it zoomed to almost silly prices, trebling in some cases especially decking.   As the pandemic took hold and timber was hard to get stocks, prices went through the roof.

But the pandemic is all but gone as such as we get together more and the world is opening up, so why has the prices stayed the same and not come down, so let me know where you get your timber from and how much you pay for it, I am in medway area and a meter of 100 x 50mm is around 3.36 plus vat.

Be interesting to find out where the cheapest is in what part of the country. 

Timber in the garden

 Timber used in the garden has to be treated with some care and attention once in a while, expecting soft treated timber to go on and on without some form of care is a waste of money, so spend some time once a year caring for the timber structure you have built and paid for.

Depending upon what you have built, some oil or a coat of stain or paint is a must, no need to sand it down to the life of it, just a light sand to give the next treatment coat a "key" will be enough. 

Always use pressure treated timber or of course hardwood, never use untreated pine or so, even giving a paint will always lead to a short life. 

Dont forget any questions email me. peter117195261@gmail.com

Garden Decking

 Decking has been popular since the late 90s, and has proved to be showing no sign of going out of fashion,  it has been a trade I have been in since 1995, recently retired I am able now to pass on my knowledge to you all.

The DIY market has always been there and is starting to get better, over the years of my building such structures, I have taken up so many old timber decks that were not only badly designed, but built in such a way that were darn right dangerous. 

Come back later to find some of the best ways to build and design a timber deck to be proud of,and also I give advice about composite, the pros and cons of it.

If you have any questions about this subject them email me on peter117195261@gmail.com